Fri, 11th July 2008
They are at it again you know!
The Amberlinks are 3 weeks old now and a few days ago, I noticed 2 of them with some red on their tails. Once I climbed into the brooder though, do you think I could see them? Anyway, hubby saw them the next day and I put them in a box in the lounge with some liquid paraffin and petroleum jelly on their rear ends! And now over the past couple of days, I've got another 2!
Please I don't want loads of them like last time!!!!! But it is soooo weird! Out of the meat chicks, we had 2 with pecked rear ends, I treated them with purple spray or the petroleum mixture and no more problems. Same with the Babcocks, just 2 of them, same treatment, no more problems, but for some reason the Amberlinks do it more. They've even got a much larger brooder house now!
they are not too hot, nor too cold, they have loads of food and drink and some CD's hanging up. The only thing I can think of is hubby told me to leave the window rather than paint it over like I did in the big henhouse, but then both the meat chicks and the Babcock's were in the same house!!!!!
Still, all the meat chickens are dead now, with the biggest ones weighing in at 11lbs!!! And all the friends that have tried the meat say it is wonderful, so as soon as I get the turkey poults out of the brooder, it'll be a big clean up and get some more meat chicks from our lovely Poulet! I will clean the brooder out really well before the turkey poults go in there as I know turkeys can catch something called blackleg or something from chickens and it can kill them!
We collect our turkey poults on 21st July, Monday week. But we got a feed price from the mill today, and turkey feed is about £100 a tonne more expensive than the chicken feed!!!
But I will put some pictures on here when we get them and you can see what they look like when they are tiny!
So jobs for next week, apart from silly little things like housework!! are: clean out meat chickens side of the hen house and disinfect, rotavate and lime soil. Wait for as long as possible and rotavate again, Get Babcock's over to that side. clean and disinfect larger side of henhouse for amberlink chicks who will be 4 weeks old next Tuesday, rotavate their side of run and lime to help sweeten soil and get rid of any nasties the other chicks may have left behind, pick up turkeys and put them in cleaned and disinfected brooder house!
Then it all starts over!!!
Filed under My Chook Diary by
Comments on They are at it again you know! »
Hi Annie, hubby was right, paint over the window, if you haven't got a dimmer switch on the light in there then either get one from Wickes, just the normal domestic one will do which can take up to 4 x 60w bulbs, or get some lower wattage bulbs, 25w should do, 15w if they carry on pecking. Get the red 25w ones if you can, the ones you use for illuminating those fake fireplaces, or dip the bottom half of a normal bulb in red paint which will darken the shed and light it up red.The birds can't tell what is blood and what isn't as everything is bathed in red light so they stop pecking. After a few weeks you can gradually remove the bulbs and put normal ones in.Don't worry about letting the paint dry on the bulbs, just whack them straight back in, the heat from the bulb will dry the paint in seconds, don't worry if it smokes slightly while it's drying.Same applies with turkeys and meat birds, if they start pecking get some red bulbs in.Don't know what your neighbours will think you have going on in the shed mind, you might get a visit from the Boston Constabulary!! lol
No no Poulet, hubby was not right! He told me NOT to cover the window over!!!
I'd painted them over to make it darker in there! and I don't usually have artificial lights on once the chicks are a bit bigger, and we leave the doors open with mesh screens while they are in the brooder so they get some fresh air! as it gets really warm in there. I already have red lights, perhaps I should start to turn them on again at night? And should I keep the doors shut then?
I would do what you suggest and see how it goes.
But should I keep the doors shut during the day too Poulet?
If you can without them getting too hot yes, until the problem goes away.They should grow out of it.